News : Waldschmidt and Amiri shoot the U21 into the final – Sport

The dream of the next title coup continues: Germany's junior footballers have fought one after another in a heat duel against strong Romanians in their second European Championship final and are thus only one step away from the first successful title defense of a German U21. In a heated and intense game, the DFB-Elf won on Thursday with difficulty thanks to a performance improvement in the second half in Bologna still 4-2 (1: 2) and moved after 1982, 2009 and 2017 for the fourth time in the final. There, the team of coach Stefan Kuntz attacks on Sunday (20.45 clock) for the third title.

The Hoffenheim Nadiem Amiri met in its first starting line-up in the tournament in front of 16 211 spectators after fine individual performance to the lead (21 minutes). Surprise team Romania beat off the thrilling duel with a brace from striker George Puscas (27./foulelfmeter and 44.). In the second round, Luca Waldschmidt converted a penalty for a foul on Mahmoud Dahoud to 2: 2 (51) and hit a free-kick in the 90th minute to 3-2 - already his seventh goal in the tournament.

In injury time, Romanian Alexandru Pascanu saw the red card after a foul on substitute Lukas Nmecha and Amiri finished - also by free kick - the final point.

When compensating for the 2: 2 help the Romanians vigorously

At temperatures around 40 degrees, the German team came well with an orderly build-up in the game. Especially on the right side of the team of coach Stefan Kuntz reach in the initial phase offensive advances. On the other side, the Romanians came above the standards of Ianis Hagi, son of former world star Gheorghe Hagi, in front of the German goal. Due to the great heat referee Orel Grinfeld asked the teams after a good quarter of an hour for the first cooling and drinking break. And that did the Germans really well: The ball just rolled back a few minutes, as he grabbed himself Nadiem Amiri, ran from the center line to the penalty area and scored to 1-0.

However, the euphorically cheered by Kuntz before the German bank leadership did not last long. Timo Baumgartl fouled Hagi in the penalty area and in the view of the video images decided the Israeli referee Grinfeld right on penalty kick - already the fourth against the German offspring in the fourth game. Puscas came on and overcame keeper Alexander Nübel, who was still with his fingertips on the ball. The compensation gave Romania a noticeable boost.

The team of coach Mirel Radoi increased the pressure, played aggressively and was cheered on by numerous frenetic fans poisonous in the duels. After an unnecessary loss of midfield in Germany, the Romanians switched quickly, found Puscas in the center and the 23-year-old headed into the net from close range. And Puscas whirled on: In the stoppage time of the first round he almost succeeded his third goal, but Nübel saved Germany from the probably premature K.o. - with a Wahsinns reflex.

At the German equalizer after the break, the Romanians helped a lot: Hagi overthrew Mahmoud Dahoud in the penalty area and Waldschmidt certainly converted to 2: 2. The German offspring now played stronger and came to other opportunities. However, Waldschmidt and Nmecha lacked the necessary precision before the goal before Waldschmidt and Amiri made the much-acclaimed decision.